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Because if you read the article you would see that the cars are not fully automatic, they just have some automatic safety features, the DARPA challenge is/was for fully automatic cars...
Toyota's method, at least on the Sienna, is to repeatedly quickly engage and disengage the clutch. So while the engine runs at higher RPMs, the clutch slips like crazy. This heats up the transmission and causes more wear and tear than normal. It's good for normal drivers who don't know how to drive in icy weather, but it really messes up anyone who is used to snow driving.
It's been a long time coming. Check out the Firebird III here - http://www.conklinsystems.com/firebird/ - it was one of a series of G.M. turbine-powered cars and it had self-drive in 1959.
Human reaction time can be negative. A computer probably won't be..
Actually, the next generation of adaptive cruise control (or intelligent cruise control, depending on the marketer) is cooperative cruise control. In this mode, cars communicate in real time within their local area on traffic conditions, braking rates, speed, etc and adjust cruise control accordingly.
This has other benefits beyond emergency situations in that this sort of tech will suck up shockwaves in traffic, thus improving dense driving for everyone. There was a simulation paper on this a few years back that showed you didn't even need a majority of the cars to have this for these results.
I don't get it. Seriously, what's wrong with registering? I don't expect the NYT to come to my house and mug me or anything, and the amount of spam e-mail/phone calls I get is enough not to warrant keeping a potential threat from NYT out. It's convenient to be able to use a real link instead of a partner one.
Hm...what if Slashdot arranges to be an NYT partner?
if you are already doing an emergency maneuver that makes it look like you are unsafely changing lanes, would the car put you back into the lane?
When I drove one of these prototypes, it would fight you at first, but ultimately relent and let you overpower the automation. Most of the prototypes I've seen have easy to use kill switches to shut the computer off, but I can't imagine the lawyers letting such a feature hit the market.
I generally hate traction control, because most systems modulate it by controlling the throttle inputs (limiting fuel injection...), which does not respond quite fast enough.
Hmmm. Traction control is a nebulous concept. All it really amounts to is some mechanism taking some control over wheel speed, somehow. "Most" traction controls work completely differently from one another.
My old '91 Mazda 626 had traction control. It was a little button you pushed next to the shifter, and all it did was prevent your transmission from rolling backwards and prevented you from putting too much power through the transmission. I never used it.
Limited slip/positrac differential is another kind of traction control that keeps power to both drive wheels at all times, and lets up on a drive wheel when turning, or when it starts to slip.
BMW came out, a number of years back, with a traction control that used wheel speed + abs to improve handling and smooth out a ride that would otherwise toss you around your sleep.
ABS itself is traction control, it prevents your wheels from losing traction during braking.
And subaru has had that fancy system where you push the brake and the clutch all the way down together, and then the transmission clicks itself into place to hold you on a hill (called a hill holder). So you don't spin out when you take off on the hill, and so you don't drift backwards when slipping the clutch.
Fact is, "traction control" is just an automotive buzzword, and has been implemented in a variety of different ways. Now, newer and fancier cars are starting to add more layers of systems that all deal with traction in some form or other, but the words "Traction control" mean very little by themselves.
It wasn't my fault, officer. It was my car. (Score:5, Informative)
non reg link (Score:3, Informative)
linky linky [nytimes.com]
Re:so why weren't one of these in the darpa challe (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Could be good for safety (Score:3, Informative)
Self-driving cars date back to the 50's (Score:2, Informative)
Re:What does this mean? (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, the next generation of adaptive cruise control (or intelligent cruise control, depending on the marketer) is cooperative cruise control. In this mode, cars communicate in real time within their local area on traffic conditions, braking rates, speed, etc and adjust cruise control accordingly.
This has other benefits beyond emergency situations in that this sort of tech will suck up shockwaves in traffic, thus improving dense driving for everyone. There was a simulation paper on this a few years back that showed you didn't even need a majority of the cars to have this for these results.
Re:It wasn't my fault, officer. It was my car. (Score:2, Informative)
Hm...what if Slashdot arranges to be an NYT partner?
Re:Could be good for safety (Score:3, Informative)
When I drove one of these prototypes, it would fight you at first, but ultimately relent and let you overpower the automation. Most of the prototypes I've seen have easy to use kill switches to shut the computer off, but I can't imagine the lawyers letting such a feature hit the market.
Re:Could be good for safety (Score:3, Informative)
I generally hate traction control, because most systems modulate it by controlling the throttle inputs (limiting fuel injection...), which does not respond quite fast enough.
Hmmm. Traction control is a nebulous concept. All it really amounts to is some mechanism taking some control over wheel speed, somehow. "Most" traction controls work completely differently from one another.
My old '91 Mazda 626 had traction control. It was a little button you pushed next to the shifter, and all it did was prevent your transmission from rolling backwards and prevented you from putting too much power through the transmission. I never used it.
Limited slip/positrac differential is another kind of traction control that keeps power to both drive wheels at all times, and lets up on a drive wheel when turning, or when it starts to slip.
BMW came out, a number of years back, with a traction control that used wheel speed + abs to improve handling and smooth out a ride that would otherwise toss you around your sleep.
ABS itself is traction control, it prevents your wheels from losing traction during braking.
And subaru has had that fancy system where you push the brake and the clutch all the way down together, and then the transmission clicks itself into place to hold you on a hill (called a hill holder). So you don't spin out when you take off on the hill, and so you don't drift backwards when slipping the clutch.
Fact is, "traction control" is just an automotive buzzword, and has been implemented in a variety of different ways. Now, newer and fancier cars are starting to add more layers of systems that all deal with traction in some form or other, but the words "Traction control" mean very little by themselves.